Exemplary embodiments relate to calendar events and web conference events, and particularly to synchronizing calendar events and web conferencing events.
Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings or presentations over the Internet. In a web conference (e.g., an electronic meeting), each participant sits at his or her own computer, and is connected to other participants via the Internet. This can be either a downloaded application on each of the attendees computers or a web-based application where the attendees will simply enter a “URL” or website meeting address to enter the live meeting or conference. These web-based applications may be used with Flash or Java technology.
A webinar is a type of web conference, that tends to be mostly one-way, from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction, such as in a webcast, which is transmission of information in one direction only, like watching a concert on the internet. A webinar, however, can be very collaborative, and include polling and question and answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter. A webinar is ‘live’ in the sense that information is conveyed according to an agenda, with a starting and ending time. In most cases, the presenter may speak over a standard telephone line, pointing out information being presented on screen, and the audience can respond over their own telephones, preferably a speakerphone. There are a few web conferencing technologies on the market that have incorporated the use of Voice over the Internet protocol (VoIP) audio technology, to allow for a truly web-driven presentation, removing the need for any external devices, such as a telephone.
When scheduling participants to attend a web conference, there are only certain options available. It would be desirable to provide mechanisms and techniques for seamlessly scheduling and providing calendar events and web conferences.